Technology Tuesday: Macs fess up to having viruses

Do you remember those ads? The ones with the smug hipster representing the Mac, the dowdy middle aged guy representing the PC. One of Mac's marketing points has long been to intone the mantra 'Mac don't get viruses'.

But very quietly, very subtly, Apple has gone about changing the language it uses when discussing viruses, and for the latest release of its operating system, OS 10 Mountain Lion, rather than saying 'Macs don't get PC viruses' it is placing the emphasis on how 'It's built to be safe'.

This shift in language to coincide with the release of its latest operating system follows two viruses that had a devastating impact on Macs. Earlier this year, an estimated 600,000 Macs were affected by malware called 'Flashback'.

So is this a sign of things to come? Macs getting struck down by the computer equivalent of the common cold? This week for our Technology Tuesday segment we're joined by Matthew JC Powell, editor of macthemag.com.